Cisco Doubles Down to Accelerate IoT Adoption with New Application Deployment Options at the Edge and Expanded Fog Computing Portfolio

Chicago, IoT World Forum 2014, October 14, 2014 – Today at IoTWF, Cisco outlined an expansion of its fog computing strategy with the second phase of its IOx platform for industrial scale IoT deployments. Cisco outlined increasing industry ecosystem partner momentum and new hardened IoT platform support, and introduced its IOx Application Management Module. As a key part of the Cisco® fog computing strategy, IOx enables third party operating systems such as Linux and industry software applications to run directly on Cisco hardened IoT network platforms, which is critical for IoT solutions where applications, storage and compute needs to reside closer to "Things" such as sensors and devices.

Cisco provides a unique value for customers to fully exploit the opportunities created by IoT through its ability to offer networking, compute and storage from cloud to fog. Internet of Things deployments involve unique requirements such as combining distributed sensors and data, optimizing the analysis of data in motion as it enters the network, and centralized control, which requires a new infrastructure approach with strong centralized data center and robust Edge. Cisco's strategy to invest in hybrid Data Center solutions, including the Intercloud as well as in the fog, creates an optimized infrastructure for IoT.

Cisco also today outlined the components of its IoE Software and Services Suite, which expands its IoT offerings and drives IoE value. This suite analyzes the data culled from IoT deployments and connects them with the people and business processes. This process uncovers intelligence as well as application integration, process automation, and context-aware mobile collaboration capabilities to help organizations respond to information more quickly. Cisco recently introduced solutions for urban safety and security, and connected transportation that take advantage of these new capabilities.

Cisco introduces extension of its fog solution with second phase of IOx platform

Over the last 8 months since introducing Cisco IOx, Cisco has driven an eight-fold increase in the number of platforms supporting the architecture. In addition to the Cisco Connected Grid™ Routers, CGR1120 and CGR1240, Cisco added Cisco IOx support to 16 other platforms, including select Cisco 819, 88x, and 89x series routers. This extension enables fog applications to run in a variety of physical environments for specific industrial use cases such as manufacturing, transportation and energy.

Since the launch of the IOx platform, it has become the de-facto fog infrastructure to deploy key vertical business models with players such as GE (PredixTM), Itron, OSISoft (PI), Intel and WindRiver, smartFOA in Japan, Tieto in the Nordics, Bitstew, Davra, SK Solutions and Rockwell Automation among others announcing support.

To accelerate and scale these industrial fog-based IoT computing models for IoT, Cisco today introduced the IOx Application Management Module. This new software solution helps customers reduce the time and expense involved in managing and monitoring millions of endpoints and their applications running right at the network edge, by centrally managing fog computing applications running on Cisco IOx edge.

Today's announcement helps provide developers and operators with greater visibility for large-scale IoT deployments, and will make the process of getting sensors and applications on and off the network much more efficient.

Cisco provides a complete end-to-end safety and security solution for IoT infrastructures – from cyber and physical security, to the core network and fog computing components to tie it all together. By delivering edge-based storage and compute capabilities, the fog computing framework enables robust analytics of safety and security data throughout the IoT deployments and transforms security data into comprehensive security intelligence that's actionable in real time.

Cisco IoE Software and Services Suite

Today Cisco also outlined the key components of its Internet of Everything Software and Services Suite. The suite consists of software, services and solutions that turn the data from the Internet of Things into business impact through automated processes and engaging personal interfaces.

The suite includes real-time decision-making solutions via analytics, data virtualization, and data integration software that reach and process data from the core to the edge of the network, and take advantage of the Cisco IOx and fog computing models to create actionable business intelligence.

The Cisco IoE Software and Services Suite helps enterprises adjust to changing conditions though the integration and automation of distributed processes. It supports the integration of applications and infrastructure by way of API management and integration software. The suite also enables business operations through a network-embedded application platform for engaging mobile-collaborative next generation experiences.

Recently, Cisco enhanced its IoT portfolio with intelligence and analytics in its Video Surveillance 7.6 solution, to provide video analytics at the edge for urban- and business safety and security applications. This allows intelligent event processing and classification and enables exceptional event action and management even before the data is analyzed at a central location.

As part of the Cisco Connected Transportation solution, a sensor network with computing power at the edge using Cisco fog computing provides rail operators with the ability to utilize analytics from the Cisco IoE Software and Services Suite to aggregate data generated by the sensors and make informed decisions to avoid incidents.

Supporting quotes:

Rob Soderbery, SVP of Enterprise Products and Solutions for Cisco:

"Cisco is working on a number of fronts to turn IoT's many, many possibilities into reality. The challenge for those interested in IoT is to combine their deep knowledge of their business with technical innovation. First, they need to understand their value chain and where IoT can add value. Second, they need to assess and prioritize those opportunities. Then they can effectively leverage technology platforms to achieve the business advantages they want."

Kip Compton, VP/GM, Internet of Things Systems and Software Group:

"We have seen tremendous market traction of Cisco IOx in the last few months along with the accelerating IoT solutions growth. As IoT grows from early adoption to wide deployment, Cisco's fog technology will expand to increasingly enable solutions providers across many industries to create innovative software offerings."

Simon Pontin, chief technology officer, Itron:

"One of Itron's biggest breakthroughs is adaptive communication, which automatically and continuously selects between multiple radio frequency, power line communications and Wifi channels. Adaptive communications builds on Cisco's IPv6 network and developers network to create the most reliable, cost effective and interoperable connected field area network for smart grid applications. This advancement – coupled with Itron Riva's edge intelligence and Cisco's IOx fog computing – allows for distributed computing across the grid and creates the opportunity for the delivery of analytics and control capabilities that can't be delivered by competing solutions, creating an environment for innovation and finally delivering on the intelligent grid promise."

Taneli Tikka, head of Industrial Internet at Tieto:

"The Internet of Everything is transforming businesses profoundly. It is an industry revolution taking place right now, and it will revolutionize the old frameworks of all business thinking. No industry is left untouched. By taking advantage of Cisco's IOx platform, Tieto Industrial Internet start-up will actively team with other market-leading solution providers to create an agile worldwide Internet of Everything ecosystem in order to provide the best quality, reliability and functionality for the benefit of our customers."

Masaharu Oku, CEO, smart-FOA Co., Ltd.:

"The utilization of data from manufacturing workplaces is Japan's strong suit, and the concept of smart-FOA was born out of our mission to enhance how data is used. FOA (Flow Oriented Approach) provides a mechanism for manufacturers to resolve problems and make real-time decisions by combining events with raw data collected by sensors, and processing these things into a format (information strips) that can be utilized by users. Our approach is highly compatible with Cisco's technology and products, and also conforms to the concept of Fog Computing and Cisco's IOx, which performs distributed processing at the network edge."

Brett May, director, Ventures and Business Development, GE Software:

“GE Software will integrate PredixTM software on Cisco’s next generation of ruggedized networking products. The combination of Predix and Cisco IOx framework will facilitate the collection and analysis of asset performance and operational data anywhere in the network. Together, Cisco and GE have developed a Predix-ready Cisco industrial router designed for harsh environments such as oil and gas production and developed as the first of a portfolio of offerings to optimize assets and operations through connectivity and compute at the edge.”

About the Internet of Things World Forum

The Internet of Things is an exclusive event created to unite global leaders for a collaborative industry discussion that will accelerate the impact of the Internet of Things on the global economy, society and the environment. In 2014, this exclusive, invitation-only event will once again bring together business and global thought leaders from across industries, technologies, and geographies that are passionate about igniting innovation and accelerating the advancement of the Internet of Things for their organizations and society as a whole.

The inaugural Internet of Things World Forum that took place October 29-31, 2013, in Barcelona, brought together the best and brightest thinkers, doers, and innovators from business, government, and academia. At this year's 2014 IoTWF in Chicago, the number of sponsors has tripled to 49, and the number of end-user customers is close to triple that of the inaugural event (1,100 in 2014). Overall 1,500 attendees are expected to join the forum, making it the largest Internet of Things conference in the industry.

About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in IT that helps companies seize the opportunities of tomorrow by proving that amazing things can happen when you connect the previously unconnected. For ongoing news, please go to http://thenetwork.cisco.com.

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